Prayer to Our Lady of the New Advent

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O Lady and Mother

of the One 
who was and is and is to come,

dawn of the New Jerusalem,

we earnestly beseech you, 

bring us by your intercession 

so to live in love 

that the Church, 
the Body of Christ, 

may stand in this world's dark 

as fiery icon

of the New Jerusalem.

We ask you 
to obtain for us this mercy

through Jesus Christ, 
your Son and Lord,

who lives and reigns

with the Father in the Holy Spirit,

one God forever and ever.

Amen. 

Prayer composed by the Sisters of the Abbey of Saint Walburga of Boulder, Colorado. 

In the Archdiocese of Denver the 16th of December is kept as the Feast of Our Lady of the New Advent. The icon of Our Lady was written by the hand of Fr William Hart McNichols. This style of icon is called "Our Lady of the Sign", and like the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Tepeyac) depicts Saint Mary the Virgin with child, bearing within her God the Son. The icon commissioned for the Archdiocese shows the Christ Child holding the Columbine, the state flower of Colorado. In the background behind the Holy Virgin one can see the outline of the Rocky Mountains.